amygdala

See also: Amygdala

English

WOTD – 16 July 2010

Location of the amygdala in the human brain (region of the brain).

Etymology

Named because of its shape. Learned borrowing from Latin amygdala (“almond”), from Ancient Greek ἀμυγδάλη (amugdálē, “almond”). Doublet of almond, amygdale, and mandorla.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /əˈmɪɡ.də.lə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

amygdala (plural amygdalas or amygdalae)

1. (neuroanatomy) Each one of the two regions of the brain, located as a pair in the medial temporal lobe, believed to play a key role in processing emotions, such as fear and pleasure, in both animals and humans.
   • 2006, Marcus Lira Brandão, Frederico Guilherme Graeff, Neurobiology of Mental Disorders, page 36:

     There is experimental evidence showing that cortisol restrains the intensity and duration of the emergency reaction to stress, and catecholamines have been shown to enhance emotional memory in the amygdala (see subsection on "Noradrenaline"). Thus, individuals lacking cortisol would overstore traumatic memories .

   • 2009 February 12, David Brooks, “The Worst-Case Scenario”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 9 November 2020:

     Cognitive scientists distinguish between normal risk-assessment decisions, which activate the reward-prediction regions of the brain, and decisions made amid extreme uncertainty, which generate activity in the amygdala.

   • 2011 April 8, Amie Ninh, “Liberal vs. Conservative: Does the Difference Lie in the Brain?”, in TIME‎^[2]:

     In the study, led by Ryota Kanai of the University College London, people who identified themselves as liberals generally had a larger anterior cingulate cortex — a comma-shaped region near the front of the brain that is involved in decision-making. By contrast, those who identified as conservatives had larger amygdalas — almond-shaped structures that are linked with emotional learning and the processing of fear.

   • 2017 March 21, Jessica Ravitz, “Lying may be your brain’s fault, honestly”, in CNN‎^[3]:

     A decreased amygdala response, in other words, may help explain the “slippery slope” of lying, said Sharot, one of the authors of “The Human Brain Adapts to Dishonesty,” just published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Holonyms

• (region of the brain): brain, limbic system

Derived terms

• amygdalar
• amygdalase
• amygdalic
• amygdalocortical
• extended amygdala
• intraamygdala

Related terms

• amygdalian
• amygdalin
• amygdaloid
• mesoamygdala

Translations

region of the brain

• Catalan: amígdala (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 杏仁體 / 杏仁体 (xìngréntǐ)

• Czech: amygdala (cs) f
• Danish: amygdala c, mandelkerne c
• Esperanto: amigdalo
• Finnish: mantelitumake (fi)
• French: amygdale cérébrale (fr) f
• Galician: amígdala (gl) f
• Georgian: ამიგდალა (amigdala)
• German: Amygdala (de) f
• Hungarian: amigdala (hu)
• Icelandic: möndlungur m
• Japanese: 扁桃体 (へんとうたい, hentōtai), 扁桃核 (へんとうかく, hentōkaku)
• Persian: بادامک (fa) (bādāmak)
• Polish: ciało migdałowate n
• Portuguese: amígdala (pt) f
• Romanian: amigdală (ro) f
• Russian: мозжечко́вая минда́лина f (mozžečkóvaja mindálina), миндалеви́дное те́ло n (mindalevídnoje télo)
• Spanish: amígdala (es) f
• Swedish: mandelkärna c, amygdala (sv) c
• Turkish: amigdala (tr)

Czech

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin amygdala. Doublet of mandle and mandorla.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈamɪɡdala]

Noun

amygdala f

1. amygdala

Declension

Declension of amygdala (hard feminine)

	singular	plural
nominative	amygdala	amygdaly
genitive	amygdaly	amygdal
dative	amygdale	amygdalám
accusative	amygdalu	amygdaly
vocative	amygdalo	amygdaly
locative	amygdale	amygdalách
instrumental	amygdalou	amygdalami

Latin

Alternative forms

• amigdala (Medieval Latin)

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [aˈmyɡ.da.ɫa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [aˈmiɡ.da.la]

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek ἀμυγδάλη (amugdálē, “almond”). Sense 3 is likely a semantic loan from Arabic لَوْز (lawz).

Noun

amygdala f (genitive amygdalae); first declension

1. almond tree
2. almond

   Synonym: amygdalum

4. (Medieval Latin) tonsil

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	amygdala	amygdalae
genitive	amygdalae	amygdalārum
dative	amygdalae	amygdalīs
accusative	amygdalam	amygdalās
ablative	amygdalā	amygdalīs
vocative	amygdala	amygdalae

Descendants

• Sicilian: mènnula
• → Proto-West Germanic: *mandalā (see there for further descendants)

Etymology 2

Noun

amygdala

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of amygdalum

References

• “amygdala”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "amygdala", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “amygdala”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Portuguese

Noun

amygdala f (plural amygdalas)

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of amígdala